Tessier-Ashpool
Encyclopedia
Tessier-Ashpool is a fictional family appearing in William Gibson
's Sprawl trilogy novels. The family owns Freeside, a space station
shaped like a spindle
Bernal sphere
constructed in high orbit. The family resides in the Villa Straylight, which occupies one end of the spindle.
The family is organized and run as a corporation, Tessier-Ashpool S.A.
. Family members are kept under cryogenic
stasis and thawed out periodically so that governance of the family is cycled between members. According to "orbital law" they are legally dead while cryogenically preserved.
The Tessier-Ashpool family owns the mainframe
to which one of their two artificial intelligence
s, Wintermute, is attached. As the computer hardware is located in Bern, Switzerland
its resident AI thereby has limited Swiss citizenship
"under their equivalent of the Act of '53". The other AI, Neuromancer, is housed within another family-owned mainframe located in Rio de Janeiro
, Brazil
.
The family became extremely successful financially, developing the attached space station, sponsoring human colonization of space, and acquiring a number of other firms which subsequently flourished. By the time of Neuromancer
, an ownership search on one of their subsidiary firms required tracing through four larger corporations, although a share of their common stock
had not been traded on the open market for more than a hundred years.
Tessier and Ashpool had two children: "Jane" and "Jean". Due to less-stringent orbital laws they were able to clone their remaining family from these two. Their children are known by a combination of their first name and the generation of clone they are (i.e., "3Jane" or "8Jean"). In Mona Lisa Overdrive, it is revealed a batch of 20 clones was made: 10 Jeans and 10 Janes. All have the hyphenated last name "Tessier-Ashpool."
However, following the death of Marie-France, the family became extremely reclusive. Family members, including Ashpool, tended to place themselves in cryogenic sleep. At any one given time, only one or two of the children would be awake. They are also known for cloning
their own assassins, "vat-grown" ninja
who follow their orders without question.
The family brought a large number of antiques with them and tried to make them fit the orbital environment but failed aesthetically. A representational image presented to that effect is the Door. It is briefly mentioned that the door was ugly. It had been a beautiful door, but to make it fit the room, the Tessier-Ashpools had cut it down. This, combined with the fact that it was the only rectilinear part of the room, made it look ugly in the new environment.
s and envisioned a future whereby the family and the AIs would create a sort of symbiosis
to expand and run the family corporation and grant them a sort of immortality
. Upon finding out about this plan Ashpool strangled his wife to death, leaving the plan unfinished.
Nonetheless, the AI known in the "Turing Code Registry" as Wintermute speculated over the years on a way of completing the plan. The culmination of Wintermute's schemes constitute the plot of Neuromancer.
By the time of Neuromancer the family has become extremely degenerate and dysfunctional. The patriarch Ashpool spends almost all of his time in cryogenic stasis. A dissolute alcoholic and heavy drug user, when he is awakened for the final time he has sex with and subsequently murders a clone of his daughter prior to committing suicide. 3Jane Tessier-Ashpool is the only member of the family not to have fallen prey to such insanity since Wintermute apparently communicated with her and provided her with copies of her mother's journals and plans. Nonetheless, she is described as "jaded" and is extremely disconnected from the world outside the Villa Straylight.
it states that 3Jane has become 'increasingly eccentric' and explains that Freeside was sold to a contractor in Pakistan by the Tessier-Ashpools in the 7 years in between the two books. Later in the book it is discovered that all that remains of Straylight is a fragment of the AIs they once created, and the Tessier-Ashpools are nowhere to be found. In Mona Lisa Overdrive
, the final iteration of the Sprawl trilogy, 3Jane and the company are described as bankrupt. This is partially due to 3Jane spending her remaining wealth constructing an "Aleph", an approximation of the Matrix, into which she uploaded her personality before the death of her physical body.
, the RCA
building atop the "city within a city" of New York
's Rockefeller Center
. The atavistic structure of the clan is reflected in this choice—the Rockefeller complex being founded by one of the 20th century's pre-eminent capitalist dynasty.
The Villa Straylight is a baroque
, feminine labyrinth which serves as the maternal hive
of the Tessier-Ashpool construct, counterpointing the geometric lattices of cyberspace
.
essay written by 3Jane when she was 12 years old. The unfinished essay is printed in full:
The bust - actually an intricately constructed computer terminal - appears earlier in the novel as part of an anecdote told by the Finn, a fence
and an old friend of Molly Millions
. Another fence, Smith, received the bust from a thief and was trying to figure out what to do with it when a Tessier-Ashpool assassin showed up at his office looking for it. Once the assassin bought the bust (at a much lower price than Smith had planned to seek), Smith told him who had brought it to him; the thief was killed soon afterward.
William Gibson
William Gibson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.William Gibson may also refer to:-Association football:*Will Gibson , Scottish footballer...
's Sprawl trilogy novels. The family owns Freeside, a space station
Space station
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...
shaped like a spindle
Spindle (textiles)
A spindle is a wooden spike used for spinning wool, flax, hemp, cotton, and other fibres into thread. It is commonly weighted at either the bottom middle or top, most commonly by a circular or spherical object called a whorl, and may also have a hook, groove or notch, though spindles without...
Bernal sphere
Bernal sphere
A Bernal sphere is a type of space habitat intended as a long-term home for permanent residents, first proposed in 1929 by John Desmond Bernal....
constructed in high orbit. The family resides in the Villa Straylight, which occupies one end of the spindle.
The family is organized and run as a corporation, Tessier-Ashpool S.A.
S.A. (corporation)
S.A. designates a particular type of corporation in various countries, mostly those employing the civil law. It originated in Spain during the 16th century. Depending on language, the abbreviation stands for various phrases meaning anonymous society, anonymous company, anonymous partnership, or...
. Family members are kept under cryogenic
Cryogenics
In physics, cryogenics is the study of the production of very low temperature and the behavior of materials at those temperatures. A person who studies elements under extremely cold temperature is called a cryogenicist. Rather than the relative temperature scales of Celsius and Fahrenheit,...
stasis and thawed out periodically so that governance of the family is cycled between members. According to "orbital law" they are legally dead while cryogenically preserved.
The Tessier-Ashpool family owns the mainframe
Mainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
to which one of their two artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
s, Wintermute, is attached. As the computer hardware is located in Bern, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
its resident AI thereby has limited Swiss citizenship
Swiss nationality law
Swiss citizenship is the status of being a citizen of Switzerland and it can be obtained by birth, marriage or naturalisation.The Swiss Citizenship Law is based on the following principles:...
"under their equivalent of the Act of '53". The other AI, Neuromancer, is housed within another family-owned mainframe located in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
.
Establishment
The family was founded by the marriage of the scions of two powerful families: Marie-France Tessier and John Harness Ashpool. After the two were married, Ashpool began construction of Freeside in high orbit due to the relatively relaxed laws governing construction.The family became extremely successful financially, developing the attached space station, sponsoring human colonization of space, and acquiring a number of other firms which subsequently flourished. By the time of Neuromancer
Neuromancer
Neuromancer is a 1984 novel by William Gibson, a seminal work in the cyberpunk genre and the first winner of the science-fiction "triple crown" — the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award. It was Gibson's debut novel and the beginning of the Sprawl trilogy...
, an ownership search on one of their subsidiary firms required tracing through four larger corporations, although a share of their common stock
Common stock
Common stock is a form of corporate equity ownership, a type of security. It is called "common" to distinguish it from preferred stock. In the event of bankruptcy, common stock investors receive their funds after preferred stock holders, bondholders, creditors, etc...
had not been traded on the open market for more than a hundred years.
Tessier and Ashpool had two children: "Jane" and "Jean". Due to less-stringent orbital laws they were able to clone their remaining family from these two. Their children are known by a combination of their first name and the generation of clone they are (i.e., "3Jane" or "8Jean"). In Mona Lisa Overdrive, it is revealed a batch of 20 clones was made: 10 Jeans and 10 Janes. All have the hyphenated last name "Tessier-Ashpool."
However, following the death of Marie-France, the family became extremely reclusive. Family members, including Ashpool, tended to place themselves in cryogenic sleep. At any one given time, only one or two of the children would be awake. They are also known for cloning
Cloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
their own assassins, "vat-grown" ninja
Ninja
A or was a covert agent or mercenary of feudal Japan specializing in unorthodox arts of war. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, as well as open combat in certain situations...
who follow their orders without question.
The family brought a large number of antiques with them and tried to make them fit the orbital environment but failed aesthetically. A representational image presented to that effect is the Door. It is briefly mentioned that the door was ugly. It had been a beautiful door, but to make it fit the room, the Tessier-Ashpools had cut it down. This, combined with the fact that it was the only rectilinear part of the room, made it look ugly in the new environment.
Later developments
Without telling her new husband, Marie-France embarked on a plan to create artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
s and envisioned a future whereby the family and the AIs would create a sort of symbiosis
Symbiosis
Symbiosis is close and often long-term interaction between different biological species. In 1877 Bennett used the word symbiosis to describe the mutualistic relationship in lichens...
to expand and run the family corporation and grant them a sort of immortality
Immortality
Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
. Upon finding out about this plan Ashpool strangled his wife to death, leaving the plan unfinished.
Nonetheless, the AI known in the "Turing Code Registry" as Wintermute speculated over the years on a way of completing the plan. The culmination of Wintermute's schemes constitute the plot of Neuromancer.
By the time of Neuromancer the family has become extremely degenerate and dysfunctional. The patriarch Ashpool spends almost all of his time in cryogenic stasis. A dissolute alcoholic and heavy drug user, when he is awakened for the final time he has sex with and subsequently murders a clone of his daughter prior to committing suicide. 3Jane Tessier-Ashpool is the only member of the family not to have fallen prey to such insanity since Wintermute apparently communicated with her and provided her with copies of her mother's journals and plans. Nonetheless, she is described as "jaded" and is extremely disconnected from the world outside the Villa Straylight.
Destruction
Ashpool is killed during the events of Neuromancer, leaving 3Jane in charge of the corporation. In Count ZeroCount Zero
Count Zero is a science fiction novel written by William Gibson, originally published 1986. It is the second volume of the Sprawl trilogy, which begins with Neuromancer and concludes with Mona Lisa Overdrive, and is a canonical example of the cyberpunk sub-genre.Count Zero was serialized by Isaac...
it states that 3Jane has become 'increasingly eccentric' and explains that Freeside was sold to a contractor in Pakistan by the Tessier-Ashpools in the 7 years in between the two books. Later in the book it is discovered that all that remains of Straylight is a fragment of the AIs they once created, and the Tessier-Ashpools are nowhere to be found. In Mona Lisa Overdrive
Mona Lisa Overdrive
Mona Lisa Overdrive is a cyberpunk novel by William Gibson published in 1988 and the final novel of the Sprawl trilogy, following Neuromancer and Count Zero. It takes place eight years after the events of Count Zero and is set, as were its predecessors, in The Sprawl...
, the final iteration of the Sprawl trilogy, 3Jane and the company are described as bankrupt. This is partially due to 3Jane spending her remaining wealth constructing an "Aleph", an approximation of the Matrix, into which she uploaded her personality before the death of her physical body.
Iconography
The Tessier-Ashpool database cores are represented by one of the icons of architectural modernismModern architecture
Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...
, the RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
building atop the "city within a city" of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
's Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, United States. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National...
. The atavistic structure of the clan is reflected in this choice—the Rockefeller complex being founded by one of the 20th century's pre-eminent capitalist dynasty.
The Villa Straylight is a baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
, feminine labyrinth which serves as the maternal hive
Hive
A hive may refer to a beehive, an enclosed structure in which some honey bee species live and raise their young.Hive may also refer to:-Arts:* The Hives, a Swedish rock band* Hive , a DJ and producer in the drum and bass music genre...
of the Tessier-Ashpool construct, counterpointing the geometric lattices of cyberspace
Cyberspace
Cyberspace is the electronic medium of computer networks, in which online communication takes place.The term "cyberspace" was first used by the cyberpunk science fiction author William Gibson, though the concept was described somewhat earlier, for example in the Vernor Vinge short story "True...
.
The essay
Most of the background information for the family is revealed in the novel Neuromancer in the form of a semioticsSemiotics
Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
essay written by 3Jane when she was 12 years old. The unfinished essay is printed in full:
The bust - actually an intricately constructed computer terminal - appears earlier in the novel as part of an anecdote told by the Finn, a fence
Fence (criminal)
A fence is an individual who knowingly buys stolen property for later resale, sometimes in a legitimate market. The fence thus acts as a middleman between thieves and the eventual buyers of stolen goods who may or may not be aware that the goods are stolen. As a verb, the word describes the...
and an old friend of Molly Millions
Molly Millions
Molly Millions is a recurring character in stories and novels written by William Gibson, particularly his Sprawl trilogy. She first appeared in Johnny Mnemonic, to which she makes an oblique reference in Neuromancer...
. Another fence, Smith, received the bust from a thief and was trying to figure out what to do with it when a Tessier-Ashpool assassin showed up at his office looking for it. Once the assassin bought the bust (at a much lower price than Smith had planned to seek), Smith told him who had brought it to him; the thief was killed soon afterward.